2000-10-25 - 4:01pm

On the internal soundtrack: The Smiths, "Is It Really So Strange?" Same as yesterday.

Ugh. I am home sick today. Actually, I was sick yesterday evening, and I am staying home today to make sure I'm definitely back to normal. At any rate, it's WAY better than having a cold.

Once I started recovering last night, I was talking to Poindexter and made him play a "game" with me. He rolls his eyes when I suggest these things but he always ends up laughing and having fun. This was a version of the "Newlywed Game", sort of, where I ask Poindexter a question to see how well he knows me, and vice versa.

The problem was that it was hard to think up questions he wouldn't know the answers to. They'd have to be pretty obscure. The conversation went like this:

Poindexter: What cold breakfast cereal did I eat, growing up?

Evelynne: Oh god ... why don't I know this? Um, Sugar Corn Pops? It's not Frosted Flakes ... Super Sugar Crisps?

P: (borderline offended) It's Cheerios!

E: Sorry. Okay, what did T--- Z--- do in kindergarten that traumatized me?

P: (immediately) "She stepped on your pet caterpillar and killed it."

[I think I even cried. Children are evil.]

P: Ok, between high school and college, I had several jobs before I worked at the pizza place. Name one of them.

E: Um ... okay, it was either a deli or a convenience store, or something...

P: (says something to the effect that I'm cheating by being vague)

E: Well, I don't know exactly what! I remember you showed me the place. It was something involving deli meat! Maybe you delivered sandwiches?

P: Yes, it was a deli. I made sandwiches. (something about his sandwich-making expertise, which he has demonstrated repeatedly in our kitchen)

E: Okay, fine, name one of my jobs.

P: I think you worked for the IRS, filing or something. Maybe not the IRS. An accounting firm or something.

E: Well, in high school I worked for a rehab center doing computer work.

P: You never told me that!

E: Yes I did! I told you about the nun I worked for and the guys from the prep seminary!

P: You never told me that!

E: Yes I did! Well, anyway, the job you're thinking was at ETS, the test people, SATs. IRS, ha! At least I was right about the deli meat! OK, my turn. Name some of my weird little habits.

P: That's really open-ended!

E: Well, name three.

P: Okay. Does the Robinson face count?

[The "Robinson face" is a kind of grimace that I, my dad, and his mother have always made when confronted with something that grosses us out. I mentioned it here in relation to some limp lettuce.]

E: No, that's an involuntary reflex.

P: That thing you do with your toes, where you move them very slowly back and forth. I can't move mine that slowly or smoothly. OK ... you scrub your teeth with a wash cloth sometimes.

E: It's the only way I can get the coffee stains off! The toothbrush doesn't work!

P: Fine. Ok, your three-fingered pose over the keyboard when you're waiting for the page to load. You freeze, like this [demonstrates the pose], then brrrrrrrrr [makes machinery noise and imitates very fast typing], then the pose again.

E: (laughing hysterically) OK, you. In the shower, you take the soap and rub in in a circle on your chest. Then you start doing figure eights over your whole front. And you hold your left hand on your stomach to catch the soap so you don't waste any. Um.... when you eat potato chips you get crumbs off your fingers like this [demonstrating]. I can't think of any more.

P: I don't have that many weird habits. You have bunches of them.

One of the neat things about being married or being part of a family is noticing all these little things about people. It can make you crazy sometimes, but there's also something nice about such familiarity. I like the predictability of it, of knowing someone well enough to be able to anticipate their behavior. Not to mention it can be hilariously funny when you imitate each other.

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